Timeline Antarctica
Return to home
Antarctic Connection: http://www.antarcticconnection.com
Antarctica info and travel: http://www.coolantarctica.com/
Australian Antarctic Program: http://www.antdiv.gov.au/
History: http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/icair/web%20stuff/Subfolder/history/
MastroMedia: http://www.mastromedia.com/antarctica/history/history.htm
Seattle P-I: http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/antarctica/about/history.shtml
Terraquest: http://www.terraquest.com/va/history/history.html
The South Pole is 9,370 feet above sea level.
This
5th largest continent is 1 1/2 times the size of the US.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A9)
250Mil BC In 2006 an apparent crater
as big as Ohio was found in Antarctica. Scientists thought it was
carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on
Earth about this time.
(www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060601_big_crater.html)
245Mil BC Researchers in 2006 said floodwaters likely
overflowed river banks in parts of Antarctica about this time, sending
water and sand across the landscape and into various animal homes, such
as burrows. No animal bones or remains were found inside the burrows,
suggesting the burrow dweller must have escaped the deluge. The
burrows' sizes and shapes, along with associated scratch marks, are
nearly identical to tetrapod burrows found in South Africa also dating
to the Triassic.
(http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42393)
170Mil BC In 2004 scientists reported the discovery
in Antarctica of primitive sauropod, a plant-eating dinosaur, from this
time.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A2)
70Mil BC In 2004 scientists reported the discovery in
Antarctica of a small meat-eating therapod dinosaur from this time.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A2)
20Mil BC-15Mil BC In Antarctica a geologic basin
formed during a tectonic upheaval that later led to the formation of
the sub-glacial Lake Vostok.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A6)
15Mil BC Lake Vostok became sealed from the surface
of Antarctica about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.87)
1.8Mil BC-1.2 Mil BC The Ross Sea off Antarctica was
6-7 degrees warmer. This was determined from shellfish fossils and 15
previously unknown species of algae found under the seabed off Cape
Roberts.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A10)
1MilBC The mean residence time for
the water in Lake Vostok was one million years as compared to 6 years
for Lake Ontario. Scientists in 1999 discovered living bacteria and
theorized that the lake was warmed either by hot magma beneath the
Earth's crust or by the downward pressure of ice.
(SFC, 12/11/99,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok)
11000BC A meteorite from Mars (ALH 84001), discovered
in 1984, landed in Antarctica about this time. It had been knocked into
space from Mars around 16 million BC. Scientists in 1996 claimed to
have found evidence of organic minerals, polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, in the meteorite that formed some 3.6 billion years ago.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A1,9)(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.M6)
8000BC About this time the West Antarctic ice sheet
started retreating at a rate of about 2 inches per year.
(SFC, 1/3/03, p.A7)
1773 Jan 17, Captain James Cook
became the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle (66d 33'
S).
(HN, 1/17/99)(MC, 1/17/02)
1820 Jan 30, Edward Bransfield
discovered Antarctica and claimed it for the UK.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1820 Nov 18, U.S. Navy Capt.
Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1837 French explorer Dumont
d’Urville (1790-1842) sailed along a coastal area of Antarctica that he
named the Adélie Coast in honor of his wife. He also named the
Adelie penguin after his wife.
(WSJ, 7/1/97,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumont_D'Urville)
1838 Aug 18, Six US Navy ships
departed Hampton Roads, Va., led by Lt. Charles Wilkes on a 3-year
mission called the US South Seas Exploring Expedition, the "U.S. Ex.
Ex." The mission proved Antarctica to be a continent. Wilkes was tried
in a military court for abuses of power, but was generally acquitted.
In 2003 Nathaniel Philbrick authored "Sea of Glory," an account of the
expedition.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.80)(WSJ, 11/12/03,
p.D12)(www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/)
1838-1842 Lt. Charles Wilkes led a 3-year mission
called the US South Seas Exploring Expedition. In 1975 William Stanton
authored “The Great United States Exploring Expedition.” In 1961 The
American Phil. Society published “Titian Ramsay Peale, 1799-1885, And
His Journals of the Wilkes Expedition.”
(ON, 3/00, p.9)
1840 Jan 19, Charles B. Wilkes,
captain of the US flagship Vincennes, claimed the discovery of
Antarctica. Wilkes Land was later named in his honor. The American
explorer, born April 3, 1798, coasted along part of the Antarctic
barrier from about 150 degrees east to 108 degrees east, the areas that
were subsequently named Wilkes Land. Wilkes’ officers disputed the Jan
19 sighting but acknowledged that land was sighted Jan 28 and Feb 15.
(HNQ, 1/12/99)(ON, 3/00, p.8)
1901 Robert Falcon Scott made an
expedition to the Antarctic. He noted the phenomena called “Earth
shadows,” where long dark arrows would project into the sky early in
the morning. They were later realized by explorer Ernest Shackleton
[1914] to be shadows from the peaks of Mt. Erebus cast across the
western mountains.
(WSJ, 7/1/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)
1907-1909 Murray Levick was the naturalist on the
Ernest Shackleton south polar expedition. [see 1908]
(NH, 8/96, p.36)
1908 Ernest Shackleton's polar
exploration team established a staging platform to Antarctica at Cape
Royds, Ross Island. A prefab cabin was built big enough for 15 men.
(WSJ, 3/30/05, p.D12)
1909 Jan 9, A Polar exploration
team led by Ernest Shackleton reached 88 degrees, 23 minutes south
longitude, 162 degrees east latitude. They were 97 nautical miles short
of the South Pole, but the weather was too severe to continue.
(HN, 1/9/01)
1909 Jan 16, One of Ernest
Shackleton's polar exploration teams reached the Magnetic South Pole.
(HN, 1/16/00)
1909 Mar 23, British Lt.
Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1911 Jul-1911 Aug, Appsley
Cherry-Gerrard, an English aristocrat and the youngest member of the
Robert Falcon Scott South Pole expedition, spent 5 weeks hauling a
sledge through 24-hour darkness on a hunt for pelican eggs that Scott
wanted. In 1922 he authored “The Worst Journey in the World.” The
author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the
frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied Scott on the
final push to the Pole.
(WSJ, 4/28/07, p.P8)
1911 Oct 20, Roald Amundsen set
out on a race to the South Pole.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1911 Oct 24, Robert Scott's
expedition left Cape Evans for South Pole.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1911 Dec 14, Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an
expedition led by Robert F. Scott. The best book on Scott and Amundsen
is by Roland Huntford "Scott and Amundsen."
(AP, 12/14/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.1,6)
1912 Jan 16, British explorer
Robert Falcon Scott wrote in his diary after reaching the South Pole on
January 16, 1912, "Great God this is an awful place and terrible enough
for us to have labored to it without the reward of priority." Robert
Scott, attempting to lead the first exploration party to the South
Pole, wrote the passage after finding the black flag of Norwegian
explorer Roald Amundsen. Thoroughly demoralized, the five members of
the Scott party died during their 800-mile trek back to their base
camp. [see Jan 18]
(HNQ, 7/22/98)
1912 Jan 18, The expedition of
British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott intended to be the first
to reach the South Pole, but when they arrived they found a letter from
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had been there over a month
earlier. Scott and his group had set out from a camp in Antarctica 81
days earlier, and on their way back, their supplies ran out. Scott
wrote in a diary during the trek, which a search party discovered with
the team's frozen bodies in November. Part of Scott's March 29 entry
reads, "We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of
course, and the end cannot be far." The team had made it to within 11
miles of the camp. Scott's diary ended with, "Last Entry: For God's
sake look after our people." [see Jan 16]
(AP, 1/18/98)(HNPD, 1/18/99)
1912 Feb 15, The Fram reached
latitude 78ø 41' S, farthest south ever by ship.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1912 Mar 7, Roald Amundsen
announced the discovery of the South Pole. [see Dec 14-15, 1911]
(MC, 3/7/02)
1912 Mar 29, Capt. Robert F.
Scott, British pole explorer, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole,
made a last entry in his diary: "the end cannot be far."
(MC, 3/29/02)
1912 Nov 12, Robert Scott's diary
and dead body were found in Antarctica.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1914 Aug, Sir Ernest Shackleton
(40) left England on a voyage to Antarctica with a 27 man crew on the
HMS Endurance. He planned to lead the “Imperial Trans-Continental
Expedition,” a dog-sled party across the continent.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B15)(ON, 5/00, p.9)
1914 Dec 5, Sir Ernest Shackleton
left South Georgia Island on the HMS Endurance in the Weddell Sea in
Antarctica.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 28)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)
1915 Jan 18, The HMS Endurance,
under Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27 man crew, froze into the ice of
Antarctica. In 1999 Caroline Alexander published "The Endurance:
Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition."
(Hem. 1/95, p. 28)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)(SFEC, 1/24/99,
BR p.1)
1915 Aug 27, Frank Hurley,
photographer, took a picture of the Endurance trapped in the ice.
(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.1)
1915 Oct 27, Ernest Shackleton and
the crew of the Endurance abandoned their ship in the Antarctic ice.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.W14)(ON, 5/00, p.10)
1915 Nov 21, The HMS Endurance,
under Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27 man crew, sank in the Weddell
Sea of Antarctica. The whole crew escaped on 3 lifeboats that included
the “James Caird.” They drifted for 5 months and when the ice broke
rowed to Elephant Island. Shackleton then rowed the Caird for 800 miles
with 5 men to South Georgia Island and returned to pick up the 21 men
left behind. Frank Hurley captured the sinking on 35-mm movie film. In
1933 F.A. Worsely, the captain of the Endurance, authored “Shackleton’s
Boat Journey.” In 1999 Caroline Alexander authored “The Endurance.”
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1,15)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.6)(WSJ,
4/16/99, p.W14)(ON, 5/00, p.10)(WSJ, 4/28/07, p.P8)
1916 Apr 14, Sir Ernest Shackleton
and his 27 man crew landed at Elephant Island off the Antarctic
Peninsula.
(ON, 5/00, p.10)
1916 May 8, Sir Ernest Shackleton
with 6 men man crew completed a 16-day voyage of 800 miles from
Elephant Island to South Georgia Island in the lifeboat James Caird.
(ON, 5/00, p.10)
1916 May 20, Sir Ernest Shackleton
with 2 men reached a whaling station on St. Georgia Island after their
ship sank in the ice of Antarctica. Shackleton’s own account of the
venture was titled: "South." In 1959 Alfred Lansing wrote “Endurance:
Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.” A biography of Shackleton was written
in 1985 by Roland Huntford.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.6)(ON, 5/00,
p.10)
1916 Aug 30, Sir Ernest Shackleton
rescued the crew he had left behind on Elephant Island.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.w14)
1919 The documentary film “South”
by Frank Hurley was about the Shackelton expedition to the Antarctic.
(WSJ, 11/8/99, p.A48)
1921 Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed
back to South Georgia.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T11)
1922 Jan 5, Sir Ernest Shackleton
(47) died of a heart attack at sea enroute from South Georgia Island to
Antarctica. He was buried on South Georgia Island. In 1924 Hugh Robert
Mill authored “The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton.”
(ON, 5/00, p.10)(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T11)
1928 Aug 25, An expedition led by
Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, N.J., on its journey to
Antarctica.
(AP, 8/25/08)
1929 Nov 28, Commander Richard E.
Byrd completed the first South Pole flight. [see Nov 29]
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1929 Nov 29, Navy Lt. Cmdr.
Richard E. Byrd radioed that he'd made the first airplane flight over
the South Pole: "My calculations indicate that we have reached vicinity
of South Pole." He was wrong. [see 1888-1957, Byrd]
(TMC, 1994, p.1929)(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP,
11/29/97)(MC, 11/29/01)
1930 Jan 22, Adm. Richard Byrd
charted a vast area of Antarctica.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1936 Jan 14, American explorer
Lincoln Ellsworth and Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon were
rescued by the research ship Discovery II. The pair had made the first
flight across Antarctica, 2,300 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross
Sea, landed when their plane's engine faltered, and waited in the
previously constructed shelter at Little America for a month to be
picked up. After his earlier attempts to cross Antarctica failed,
Ellsworth set out with Hollick-Kenyon in the monoplane Polar Star and
succeeded. Part of the area that Ellsworth and Hollick-Kenyon flew over
in 1935 has been named the Ellsworth Highlands.
(HNPD, 1/14/99)
1940-1941 A 59-man team under Adm. Richard E. Byrd
spent the winter on Antarctica. Dr. Harrison Holt Richardson (d.1999 at
80), was the youngest member of the team and took the first color
movies there. This was Byrd's 3rd mission there.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.D8)
c1950 Paul A. Siple, a US Army
Major and geographer, and Charles F. Passel, a geologist, measured the
heat loss from plastic cylinders filled with water and derived an
equation for measuring the body’s heat loss in the wind, the wind chill
factor. The derivation was later determined to be inaccurate and in
2000 efforts were made for a new formula.
(WSJ, 12/18/00, p.A1)
1954 Nov 15, 1st regularly
scheduled commercial flights over North Pole began.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1954 Ardito Desio (d.2001) became
the 1st Italian to reach the South Pole.
(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A33)
1957 Feb 16, A U.S. flag flew over
an outpost in Wilkes Land, Antarctica.
(HN, 2/16/98)
1957 Mar 11, Richard E. Byrd (68),
US explorer (Antarctica), died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1957 Jul 1, The International
Geophysical Year, an 18-month global scientific study, began. 12
nations established over 60 stations in Antarctica. The beginning of
international cooperation in Antarctica and the start of the process by
which Antarctica becomes "non-national."
(AP, 7/1/07)(http://tinyurl.com/337joj)
1958 Jan 3, Edmund Hillary reached
the South Pole (Antarctica) overland. Hillary was part of a joint New
Zealand-British ice trek that drove farm tractors on the Skelton
Glacier to the South Pole. He beat Vivian Fuchs to the South Pole by 17
days.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)(MC, 1/3/02)
1958 Mar 2, A multinational
expedition led by British geologist and explorer Vivian Fuchs (d.1999
at 91) completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica by way of
the South Pole in 99 days.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)(AP, 3/2/08)
1958 Sirs Vivian Fuchs and Edmund
Hillary published "The Crossing of Antarctica."
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)
1958 Charles D. Keeling
(1928-2005), atmospheric chemist, began monitoring the pure air at
Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and the South Pole. Subsequent CO2 readings
indicated climbed steadily and became known as the Keeling Curve.
(WSJ, 12/14/07,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling)
1959 Dec 1, Representatives of 12
countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington DC setting aside
Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity
(effective in 1961). It was adopted by the governments of Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Chile, the French Republic, Japan, New Zealand,
Norway, the Union of South Africa, the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the USA
[see 1961]. By 2007 45 signatories agreed to suspend territorial claims
and disputes, to forego all military and mining activity, and to
protect the continent as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science.
(AP,
12/1/97)(www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=1187)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.86)
1961 The Antarctic Treaty entered
into force. It was adopted to put on hold the issue of ownership in the
pursuit of peace and science.
(WSJ, 3/30/05,
p.D12)(www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=1187)
1962 Mar 3, British Antarctic
Territory was formed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1962 Mar 4, AEC announced 1st
atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1965 The Norwegian whaling
stations on St. Georgia Island closed. Some 175,250 whales had been
processed there.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T11)
1978 Jan, Emilio Marco Palma was
the first child born on Antarctica.
(SFEC, 5/28/00, Z1 p.2)
1979 Nov 28, An Air New Zealand
DC10 en route to the South Pole crashed into Mount Erebus in
Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
(www.planecrashinfo.com/cvr791128.htm)
1979 Martin Pomerantz (1916-2008,
American astrophysicist, built a telescope at the South Pole and
propelled the new field of helio-seismology. In 1995 the National
Science Foundation dedicated the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory in
Antarctica.
(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.B3)
1980 Dec 15, Charles Burton
(d.2002) and his party arrived at the South Pole on their 3-year
journey to follow the meridian line connecting Greenwich to the North
and South Poles.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)
1982 Mar 20, U.S. scientists
returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found
there.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1983 Jul 21, The coldest
temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at
Vostok, Antarctica.
(AP, 7/23/03)
1984 Dec 27, Geologist Roberta
Score found the Martian meteorite labeled Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 while
snowmobiling in the Antarctic. The 4.5 billion year old rock was
knocked of Mars by an asteroid some 16 million years earlier and landed
in Antarctica some 13,000 years before Score’s find.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.29)(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.M6)
1985 The thinning of the ozone
layer over the South Pole was first reported.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.5)
1987 Oct, The iceberg B9 calved
from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctic.
(http://tinyurl.com/ldeng)
1988 Adventure Network Int’l.
began flying tourists to the South Pole.
(SFC,12/897, p.A18)
1989 Jan 28, In Antarctica an
Argentine navy ship, the Bahia Paraiso, was wrecked on rocks next to
DeLaca Island, near the US Palmer Station scientific base. It was still
leaking diesel fuel in 1996 and had decimated imperial cormorant and
kelp gull bird population.
(SFC, 1/4/97,
p.A19)(www.antarcticmarc.com/bahia.html)
1992-2000 Some 7.5 cubic miles of the Pine Island
Glacier eroded over 8 years.
(SFC, 2/2/01, p.A14)
1994 Russian scientists detected a
large lake beneath 2½ miles of Antarctic ice. It was named Lake
Vostok and measured 250km long and 50km wide.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A6)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.87)
1996 Aug 6, NASA scientists
presented evidence that a meteorite from Mars (ALH 84001) that was
found in Antarctica in 1984 contained organic minerals such as
carbonate globules, magnetite, iron sulfide and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons. In 2001 Imre Friedmann (1921-2007), extreme
microbiologist, led a team of researchers to study the same meteorite
and claimed conclusive evidence that Mars had been teeming with life
3.5 billion years ago. Researchers in 2007 said the organic material in
the rock was made by chemical reactions.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A6)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.96)(Econ,
12/15/07, p.90)
1997 Dec 7, Three skydivers, 2
Americans and an Austrian, died while jumping to the South Pole on a
trip organized by Adventure Network Int’l.
(SFC,12/897, p.A18)
1998 Jan 14, An int’l. agreement
on Antarctica took effect that banned mining and oil drilling for 50
years and forbade a wide range of environmental hazards including
pesticides and dogs.
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.C16)
1998 Feb 7, It was reported that
the 8,000 Sq. mile Larsen B ice sheet in Antarctica was breaking up due
to rising global temperatures.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A5)
1998 Sara Wheeler published “Terra
Incognita: Travels in Antarctica.”
(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.W10)
1998 Jul 24, A report on the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet in Science said that changes have been detected by
satellite that might indicate a future collapse.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, p.A4)
1998 Sep, The ozone layer over
Antarctica grew to its largest size ever. It opened to 2 1/2 times the
size of Europe.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)
1999 Jan 13, The expedition to
reach the South Pole by Jon Muir, Peter Hillary and Eric Phillips,
called in outside support for food.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 8, A French helicopter
crashed in Antarctica and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A7)
1999 Sep, The ozone layer over
Antarctica was reported to have grown to over 8 million square miles.
(SFC, 9/8/00, p.A7)
1999 Apr 9, The Antarctic Larson B
and Wilkins ice shelves were reported to have lost 1,100 sq. miles due
to melting over the last year.
(SFC, 4/9/99, p.A16)
2000 Mar, An iceberg 183 miles
long and 22 miles wide, twice the size of Delaware, broke adrift in the
Ross Sea.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A8)
2000 May, An Australian
astrophysicist died at the Amundsen-Scott Base. It was only the 3rd
death at the pole in 35 years. It was only the 3rd death at the pole in
35 years.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A9)
2000 Sep 7, It was reported that
the ozone layer over Antarctica had grown to 11 million square miles.
(SFC, 9/8/00, p.A7)
2001 Feb 11, Ann Bancroft and Liv
Arnesen became the 1st women to cross the Antarctic land mass on skis.
(SFC, 2/13/01, p.D3)
2001 Mar 26, It was reported that
scientists had detected high-energy neutrinos for the 1st time in the
Antarctic Muon and neutrino Detector Array (Amanda).
(SFC, 3/26/01, p.A6)
2001 Apr 24, A Twin Otter plane
landed at the Amundsen-Scott south Pole Station to pick up Dr. Ronald
Shemenski (59), who suffered from a gall bladder attack. A C-130
Hercules from the New Zealand air force rescued 2 Americans from the
McMurdo Antarctic Base.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A9)(AP, 4/24/02)
2001 Apr 25, A rescue plane flew
out of the South Pole with ailing American doctor Ronald S. Shemenski
in the most daring airlift ever from the pole.
(AP, 4/25/02)
2001 Dec 29, Thousands of
Antarctic penguins were reported dead or dying due to giant icebergs
that cut the birds off from their food supply.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A2)
2002 Mar 19, Scientists reported
that the Larsen B ice shelf, covering some 1,250 square miles, had
collapsed into small icebergs over the last 35 days.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 27, Rescue helicopters
from the South African ship Agulhas picked up 21 Russian scientists
from the Magdalena Oldendorff, trapped in ice near Antarctica. 1,100
pounds of food was delivered to the remaining 86 people. Another 48
were rescued the next day.
(SFC, 6/28/02, p.A14)(SFC, 6/29/02, p.A14)
2003 Oct, A storm split apart the
world's largest iceberg (B15), about the size of Jamaica, off the coast
of Antarctica. It is believed to have caused the deaths of millions of
penguins after it blocked access to the sea from the Ross Ice Shelf.
(SFC, 11/8/03, p.A26)
2003 Dec 20, A rescue team picked
up two injured British adventurers after their helicopter crashed in
the Antarctic during a round-the world voyage. Jennifer Murray and
Colin Bodill, who were attempting to circumnavigate the Earth across
both poles, were found "safe and well."
(AP, 12/20/03)
2004 Jan 10, Fiona Thornewill
(37), a British woman, completed her unaided solo hike to the South
Pole in record time. She walked 700 miles in 42 days broking the
previous record of 44 days for an unaided individual or team for
walking or skiing.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Sep 23, Antarctic researchers
reported that the ice cap’s glaciers are now melting twice as fast as
in the 1990s and raising sea level.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 3, British scientists
reported an 89% decline since the 1970s in stocks of Antarctic krill,
vital food for marine animals.
(WSJ, 11/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Walter Dean Myers authored
“Antarctica: Journeys to the South Pole.”
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.E7)
2005 Sep 16, The UN said the hole
in the ozone layer above Antarctica has grown to near record size this
year, suggesting 20 years of pollution controls have so far had little
effect.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, Rescue teams searched
for two Argentine men whose snowmobile plunged into a deep ice crevasse
in Antarctica over the weekend, but hopes of pulling them out alive
were fading.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Nov 25, The European Project
for Ice Coring in Antarctica reported that carbon dioxide in the
current atmosphere is greater than at any time during the last 650,000
years.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.A1)
2006 Mar 3, Research by NASA
showed that shrinkage of the Antarctic ice sheet over the last 3 years
has raised global sea level by 1.2 millimeters.
(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 30, Researchers reported
in the journal Science that record levels of greenhouse gases may be
trapping heat above the ice sheets of Antarctica.
(SFC, 3/31/06, p.A2)
2007 Jan, In Antarctica the South
Pole Telescope (SPT) opened to search signs of dark energy.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.87)
2007 Feb 12, A Japanese whaling
ship issued a distress signal from Antarctic waters, after it collided
with a protest boat trying to save whales from slaughter.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 15, Officials warned of a
potential environmental disaster in Antarctica after fire erupted on a
Japanese whaling ship, as the search continued for a missing crewmen
from the crippled ship. The next day Japanese officials said the ship
posed no environmental threat.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Mar 31, It was reported that
Antarctica held about 90% of the world’s ice.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.85)
2007 May 17, The journal "Science"
reported that Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, a crucial "carbon sink" into
which 15 percent of the world's excess carbon dioxide flows, is
reaching saturation and soon may be unable to absorb more , a deeply
troubling development.
(AFP, 5/17/07)
2007 Sep 5, The Belgian-based
International Polar Foundation unveiled what it claimed to be the
world's first zero-emissions polar science station in Antarctica to
conduct research on climate change.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2008 Jan 11, A historic passenger
jet flight from Australia to Antarctica touched down smoothly on a blue
ice runway, launching the only regular airlink between the continents.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 12, America formally
opened its new $174 million base at the south Pole. It took almost 20
years to design and build.
(Econ, 1/19/08, p.89)
2008 Feb 28, In western Antarctica
a 160-square mile chunk of ice on the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf
began collapsing. It had been there for some 1,500 years.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 16, NASA said satellite
data indicated that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Alaska,
Antarctica and Greenland since 2003 among the latest signs of global
warming.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 20, Militant
environmental activists said they had intercepted the Japanese whaling
fleet in Antarctic waters and attempted to attack one of the boats with
stink bombs.
(AP, 12/20/08)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Antarctica
End of file.